Short answer
A payment authorization hold is a temporary reservation of funds on a customer's card: the bank confirms the money is available and sets it aside, but the merchant has not charged it yet. The charge is completed when the merchant captures the payment, or the hold drops off if it is cancelled or expires.Stores use authorization holds when they do not want to charge until they ship. Shopify lets a store capture payment automatically at checkout, automatically when the order is fulfilled, or manually. Pre-orders, made-to-order products and orders under fraud review often use delayed capture. On the customer's bank statement, the hold appears as a pending transaction.
That pending line causes most of the questions. A customer cancels order #1068 an hour after placing it and sees the amount still pending on her card. Another sees two pending amounts after a failed payment and a retry. Someone else thinks they were charged twice. In each case, the store's side is usually fine: the hold was voided or never captured, and the bank is slow to release it. The amount typically drops off within a few business days, and some banks take longer.
The common reply is "we have not charged you", which is true and unhelpful. The customer can see money missing from their available balance. A better answer explains the hold, says it has been released on the store's side, and gives a realistic time for the bank to clear it.
Authorization vs capture vs refund
| Step | What happens to the money | What the customer sees |
|---|---|---|
| Authorization | reserved, not taken | a pending amount |
| Capture | taken from the account | a completed charge |
| Void, before capture | reservation released | pending amount drops off |
| Refund, after capture | money returned | a credit, days later |
Faced with a question about a pending charge, Aide reads the order before replying, so it can say whether the order was cancelled, paid or still waiting to ship, and answer from the store's payment policy in its knowledge. For a verified shopper who wants to cancel before shipping, Aide can cancel the order within the team's rules, and any refund waits for approval by default. See how order cancellations work.